Books: Goodfellow's Progress

The goodfellow is large, well informed, modest and moneyed; he has
decent impulses and the ability to keep such impulses decently in
check. To the goodfellow, self-respect is a garden path, not the
tightwire it is to most men. Thus securely footed, the goodfellow can
perform extraordinary acts of treachery while maintaining an excellent
opinion of himself. Others almost invariably share this opinion.

In this nasty, low, mean and excellent novel, the goodfellow under
scrutiny is Crandall Avery. best friend to Robert Duggan, the novel's
narrator. With warm misanthropy...